Matrix Games Forums

Platform: Steam
Build version: v1.3.1.0 Beta + Expansion and all DLCs
Severity: Low
Annoyance factor: Medium
Confusion for new players: High
Saved game:
Often, automated fleets take missions that they shouldn’t (Ive posted bug reports on that). This is a case of a fleet NOT taking a mission that it should take. Not sure if it happens as often as the reverse scenario, but it’s not the first time I’ve seen this.

I’ve just “acquired” all the ships from an “Haakonish Lost Fleet” and have put them all in 2nd Fleet, a new fleet created to group those ships. I’ve set the fleet to Attack role. It’s home base has been assigned by the game (Merta spaceport, at the capital). It’s engagement range (also default assigned by the game) is 40% of fuel range.

The save has been made just after that point.

2nd Fleet is near the PR503 system, liste in “Dangerous Locations” as containing a threat of strength 333. The fleet strength is 3,052. Here’s a screenshot of the whole situation, with the fleet’s engagement range visible:


So one would assume that 2nd Fleet would be assigned to the task. But of course, one would be wrong! The fleet is instead going to its home base: the Merta Spaceport.

To reproduce the problem, you just need to unpause the game right after it’s loaded. You’ll see that immediately, the fleet is going to it’s home base.

Not because it needs fuel. Not because it needs repair. No. Just... because!

Are there any friendly stations at the location in question? What happens after some time passes? Does the fleet never pick up the mission or does it end going to the location to investigate and engage threats?

To answer the questions you asked in your previous post, I did 2 series of tests. While doing the first, I realized that the policy settings weren’t what they were supposed to be: the policies for the fleets were all set to “Automated”. I always play with those settings at “Manual”. But given the many tests I did in the last few days, I probably changed those at one point and forgot to put them on manual. And these settings (Fleets policy on Automated) resulted in weird things happening in that first series of tests.

So, for the 2nd series, I’ve set those fleet policies to “Manual”. And the results were more “normal”, and, in my opinion, point toward a problem that is related to what happens (or doesn't) when a fleet is created. And if I’m correct in my suspicion, it shouldn’t be too hard to fix.

As a result of the tests, I now have a new save, created immediately after 2nd Fleet was created, and before it was automated, and before the PR503 system was queued in Dangerous Locations. So you should be able to reproduce exactly what I did.


Saved game:

First: a question

But before I get to the tests and their results, I have a question: why did you ask if there were any friendly stations at the location? Because, based on what I know of the game, I don’t see how that could be relevant. But if it is, I’d like to know why, because it will add to my understanding of how the game works.



Now to the tests and their results

In the relevant test, this is what I did:

• Loaded an autosave in which I was about to start creating 2nd Fleet

• I created 2nd Fleet (acquired the ships from Haakonish lost fleet); the fleet was left on manual while it was being created; at that point, PR503 appeared in Dangerous Locations but wasn’t queued for investigation

• I created a save at this point: 2758.11.14 (see saved game above); so by loading it, you should be able to reproduce the steps below

• I then automated 2nd Fleet (attack role); at this point, 2nd Fleet’s engagement range is 167M on the map, and it includes the PR503 system

• To prevent any changes in the fleet composition by the automation, which might interfere in the fleet being assigned a mission, I changed some settings in its template (“Attack Fleet - Escorts”, assigned by the game). I disabled the “Trim Excess Ships” and “Auto-Upgrade Obsolete Specific Designs” (“Ship Role Up/Downgrade” was already disabled).

• I then queued PR503 in Dangerous Locations, and unpaused the game

• 2nd Fleet then went to the Merta spaceport, even though it didn’t need any repairs or fuel (the Merta Spaceport was assigned as 2nd Fleet home base by the game, not by me).

• Once 2nd Fleet reached the Merta Spaceport, and its mission became “No mission”, then the Advisor suggested sending it to investigate PR503

My interpretation of the results

With the fleet policies set properly (for how I play), once 2nd Fleet reached Merta, the game behaved as expected.

But, it didn’t before that (ie: when the fleet was initially created).

Clearly, once 2nd Fleet reached its destination (Merta spaceport), an internal check was made somewhere in the code as to what mission could be assigned to the fleet, and dangerous locations were included among those possible missions.

But when 2nd Fleet was created, the mission that was assigned to it was to go to its home base, despite not needing fuel nor repairs. I don’t know if this was the result of a default mission automatically assigned to a fleet right after its creation, or the results of an actual check of possible missions. But in any case, it didn’t include a mission to investigate the PR503 dangerous location, which it should have, given the fleet readiness and proximity to that location.

So, if I’m right, then the code change required to correct the problem would be in what’s executed right after a fleet has been created.

Thanks for the detailed info.

I asked the question regarding friendly stations because automated fleets try to prioritize threats to friendly stations or colonies more, so I was wondering if there may be something pointing to a fleet prioritization issue.

We'll investigate.

We've looked into your latest save and followed your reproduction steps. When the fleet reaches its home base, we do see it assigned to investige the threat area around PR503.

Is it inefficient that the fleet didn't automatically pick up the investigate threat-queued mission from its position, sure. Ultimately, it does end up following through, though this could be construed as a minor issue.

---

EDIT

@MaximKI: ignore this post for now. I've been doing some tests this morning (July 17), and I get different results than with the tests I did yesterday (when I created the post below). Today, no matter what settings I use, 2nd Fleet goes to the Merta spaceport!

I'll continue to do more tests to try to understand what's going on... But the inconsistencies are killing me!

---

I'm afraid there’s a misunderstanding. I should have been clearer in what I wrote in my previous post (with the 2nd save). Hopefully, this will bring more clarity...


When the problem occurs

The problem occurs when:

- all the policy settings for the fleets are set to auto
- 2nd Fleet is automated (attack role)
- PR503 is queued in Dangerous Locations

When the policies and the fleet are on manual, everything works as it’s supposed to (this is what you've seen when you did the test with the second save).

The way I had written the post mislead you in thinking that I wrote about the steps to reproduce the problem. But in fact, I was telling you that the point where the save was made was just before anything was set in motion to reproduce the problem: policy settings still on manual, as well as the fleet, and PR503 not yet queued in Dangerous Locations.

The idea was that from there, you could start from "fresh", without anything having been automated yet. But looking back, it was unnecessarily confusing: my bad (good intentions; bad results). Sorry about that.


Steps to reproduce

Now the actual steps to reproduce the problem:

* load the second save
* put the 5 fleet policies on auto
* automate 2nd Fleet (attack)
* the engagement range should already be set at 40% of fuel range; if it isn’t, for whatever reason, set it to that
* queue PR503 in Dangerous Locations
* unpause

From there, it shouldn’t take long for 2nd Fleet to get the mission “Move to Merta Spaceport”, without taking the PR503 as it should have.


So, clearly, the problem lies into the automation (either the policies, or the fleet mode, or both).

In at least one of the test I did, 2nd Fleet did get the mission to investigate PR503 without first having to go to its home base (Merta Spaceport). Which would be the expected behavior...

BUT, I haven’t been able to reproduce it since!!! (I believe the settings were: Fleet policy settings: manual; 2nd Fleet: automated (attack)).

The rest of the time, I get the same result you’ve got when you did a test with the second save I’ve posted: 2nd Fleet goes to the Merta spaceport and then takes the mission to PR503.

I would however dispute that it’s a minor issue. Sure, it’s not a crash. But if you’re trying to get rid of the Hive with automated fleets, and instead of attacking a nearby Hive ship, your fleet goes first to it’s home base, you’ll never get rid of the Hive!

From my perspective, for automation to be useful it has to have a certain level of efficiency. I’m not saying that it needs to be as efficient as a mnual player would be. But this?

I guess we’ll have to disagree on that one...


P.S.: I’ve scan the game files, a few times, and everything is OK (except the usual files when the default game settings have been changed). So I don’t think that corrupt files are the explanation of the fluke instance where the fleet worked as I excepted it to.